The Official Statistics Debate

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The Official Statistics Debate

• Relevant names and issues to mention in your
  essay work.

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Who gathers statistics?

• The government gathers statistics from the
  police.
• It commissions research projects from university
  researchers and teachers.
• Other agencies concerned with crime gather
  statistics.

3
Statistics a social construction

• Statistics may appear to be facts.
• However, statistics are not fully reliable as
  they are socially constructed by the people who
  gather the data.

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What do statistics measure?

• Statistics measure crimes.
• Crimes are socially defined, what is a crime will
  vary according to changes in norms, values and
  mores.
• Things are made criminal, and they are legalised
  as society changes.

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The case of domestic violence

• There are more reported cases of domestic
  violence than in the 1970s.
• Is there more violence?
• Probably not the police did not act on reports
  of domestic violence and many women regarded
  violence as a normal part of marriage.

6
Jock Young

• Jock Young (1994) pointed out that laws have been
  created, often quickly and without forethought,
  in response to moral panics or to political
  events.
• Examples include various laws against terrorism

7
Stephen Moore

• Stephen Moore points out that the police play a
  very significant part in the social construction
  of crime and deviance because it is they who
  record reported crimes.

8
Atkinson

• Atkinson criticised Durkheims study of Suicide.
• He said that Coroners create a definition of a
  typical suicide and then categorise individual
  deaths according to that social construction.

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Frances Heidensohn

• Heidensohn says that the police have a powerful
  canteen culture, which has elements of
  masculinism, authoritarianism, intolerance of
  ethnic minorities, a desire for excitement and
  strong notions of law enforcement.
• They will therefore categorise acts as criminal
  on the basis of these perceptions

10
Howard Becker

• Becker pointed out that delinquent boys were less
  likely to be charged if they behaved with a
  sufficiently cooperative and pleasant manner and
  if they were seen as basically good than if
  they were aggressive or hostile.

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How do we know about crime?

• Official Statistics
• Victim Studies
• Self Report Studies

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Official Statistics

• Tell us about patterns of reporting, recording
  and conviction.
• We learn about public and police practice.
• They give us a base line from which to work.

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Victim studies

• The best known is the biennial British Crime
  Survey.
• This is available on-line.
• Adults from a large sample report which crimes
  they have experienced.
• They also report which crimes they have told the
  police about this is usually less than half the
  crime experienced.

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The British Crime Survey

• The statistically average person aged 16 or over
  can expect
•  a robbery once every five centuries (not
  attempts)
• an asssault resulting in injury (even if slight)
  once every century
• a family car to be stolen or taken by once every
  60 years
• a burglary in the home once every forty years
• This glosses over the fact that some people are
  considerably more at risk than others.

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The Islington Crime Survey

• Conducted by Jones et al (1986)
• Islington is the seventh most deprived area in
  England).
• The researchers found higher levels of
  victimisation and multiple victimisation amongst
  women, ethnic minorities and the poor.
• Burglary, robbery, or sexual assault had touched
  a third of all households within the last twelve
  months.

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Feminists and victim studies

• Feminist researchers such as Hanmer and Saunders
  1984, Hall 1985 suggest levels of sexual crime
  against women are far higher that those revealed
  by national victim surveys and infinitely higher
  that those indicated by police records.

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Fear of crime

• The British Crime Survey shows that older women
  tend to be the most afraid.
• Younger men - who are most likely to end up
  victim in a violent or criminal incident on the
  street - are the least likely to admit fear.
• However the repercussions for older people may be
  more serious if a crime is committed.

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Self Report studies

• Ordinary people are asked what crimes they have
  committed.
• These reveal high levels of petty criminality.
• They tend to focus on minor misdemeanours rather
  than serious acts of deviance.

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The end

• If you have any ideas for improvement, please see
  Mrs Griffiths